The bright future of cardiothoracic and vascular surgery: the role of EACTS†

Abstract

For patients with coronary artery disease, new treatments such as thrombolysis, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and statins have improved care. The introduction of new technologies has improved the outcome in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), coronary angioplasty and stents. Coronary revascularization by means of CABG or angioplasty for stable coronary disease accounted for approximately 7% of the overall drop in deaths from coronary heart disease. Due to its lesser invasiveness, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has, since its introduction, been used increasingly more commonly than CABG, and the ratio of CABG vs PCI has changed over the years (Fig. 1). PCI has rapidly increased since 1990, while the number of CABG procedures decreased. In most European countries, angioplasty now accounts for at least 70% of all revascularizations. The large variations in the ratio of PCI to CABG across countries do not seem to be closely related to the incidence of ischaemic heart disease. The selection of revascularization